A team of three Taiwanese experts have flown to China to collect first-hand information on the outbreak of viral pneumonia there after Taipei and Beijing clashed over the issue, a top health official said yesterday.
"The three left here this morning. Probably they are already in Guangzhou at this moment," Lee Long-teng (
Among the three Taiwan experts are Wang Li-hsin (
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has killed more than 100 people around the world, is believed to have originated in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
The visit was in response to an invitation by a non-governmental organization from China, Lee said.
But he declined to give too many details of the trip for fear of sparking fresh bickering between the two countries.
"Taiwan will not play up the visit, nor will we use this as an excuse to push for Taiwan's joining of the World Health Organization [WHO]," Lee said.
President Chen Shui-bian (
The allegations have been denied by China, which said it was willing to work with Taiwan to curb the spread of deadly illness.
"The pressing task of the moment is for the two sides to step up cooperation on the basis of caring for the people and take joint measures to put this under effective control," Chinese Health Minister Zhang Wenkang (
Taiwan's Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday confirmed the 20th "probable" case in Taipei.
Five of the 20 cases have been discharged from hospitals and the country has yet to report any SARS-related deaths.
The CDC said most of the country's SARS cases had shown symptoms of the sometimes deadly disease following trips to Hong Kong and China.
The government has banned visits by civil servants to China and the other SARS-affected areas, including Hong Kong and Vietnam.
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